Learn how to draw and edit vector graphics using Adobe Illustrator. This course covers the basics and advanced features, including the Pen tool, effects, layers, masks, and more. Perfect for creating logos, icons, and packaging.
Begin your journey as a professional graphic designer by learning the essential skills and tools used by industry experts. Gain hands-on experience in Adobe Photoshop, InDesign, and Illustrator, and create a stunning portfolio to showcase your talent to potential employers or clients.
Build professional-level Illustrator skills and earn your Adobe Certified Professional credential through hands-on classes, private tutoring, and real-world projects. This certification program covers everything from vector drawing to logo design, giving you the tools to succeed on the exam.
Illustrator is one of Adobe’s mainline products and is nearly as old as the company itself. Initially released in 1987 after two years of development, Illustrator was the second product Adobe ever produced, after PostScript. It was designed to help with typesetting and logo graphics in design. Through 28 generations of products, Illustrator has adapted and changed to include three-dimensional graphics, gradients, and other detailed and effective visual features.
While other graphic-design software has been released in recent years to cut into Illustrator’s market share, it remains one of the most widely used products of its type on the market today. That makes it an important app for budding Graphic Designers, Web Developers, marketers, and even television producers to master. Understanding how to use its powerful tools can prepare you for a rewarding and high-earning career in many different tech-related fields.
Thankfully, Dallas is a huge tech capital, with more startups popping up across its market every day. As these companies grow and expand, they’ll likely need someone with design skills to produce corporate artwork, marketing materials, and even social media products. As a result, it’s worth understanding the full scope of Illustrator, your unique training options, and the industries and careers you can pursue by mastering this powerful software tool.
Illustrator is a diverse and powerful software package filled with lots of fantastic design tools. Used by thousands of businesses around the world, Illustrator provides you with plenty of cool and fascinating design concepts to explore. That said, even people who aren’t interested in a career change or a job in design may enjoy learning Illustrator. You don’t necessarily have to master this software to get the best results—even cursory knowledge is very useful.
For example, you could use Illustrator to produce logos, business cards, and social media graphics for your personal business. As one of the most popular products for business-based design processes, Illustrator provides an adaptable platform on which you can craft your company’s unique image. Even if you simply want to spruce up your personal X (Formerly Known as Twitter) or TikTok posts, Illustrator can provide you with the help you need.
Furthermore, you could use Illustrator to create interesting graphics for personal events such as weddings, graduations, family gatherings, class reunions, and much more. Producing banners and fliers for these affairs can make them more exciting; you can even use Illustrator to advertise these celebrations online on Facebook and beyond! No matter what your needs, Illustrator can provide an amazing way for you to connect with others and build relationships.
Illustrator’s uniquely broad scope means you’ll master multiple skills, techniques, and design theories when learning this software. As a result, your training course will cover diverse topics and concepts that you can use to produce engaging artwork to share online or print. If you’re nervous about your class—understandable if you have no experience—it’s worth checking out the skills below to see what you’ll practice when learning about Illustrator’s powerful design.
Some of the first lessons you’ll take in Illustrator will focus on this software’s diverse tools. These include drawing, selecting, navigating, painting, texting, and modifying tools that can help you produce attractive and engaging designs. You’ll practice with each of these tools, learning how they create appealing visual artwork. By mastering them, you’ll become a better visual artist and can produce appealing and engaging physical and digital artwork for your clients.
When you download Adobe Illustrator onto your computer, you’ll have to practice some pretty important technical skills to keep it operating smoothly. Relax: you’re not going to have to learn programming to use Illustrator. Instead, you’ll study how to sync it to the internet, update its features automatically or manually, identify operational problems with the software, and learn how to keep it running smoothly. These skills can ensure you don’t lose hours fighting with Illustrator.
Even if you’re a naturally gifted artist who can quickly draw, paint, or sculpt various beautiful designs, Illustrator may challenge you. Learning how to create beautiful artistic masterpieces on a digital platform takes time, practice, and a little paradigm shifting—it’s still a bold new realm for art, nearly 40 years later! For example, creating vector graphics requires unique three-dimensional thinking in a two-dimensional framework: definitely a challenge to master.
Digital art is about more than clicking, dragging, and filling in shapes: there are philosophies to master. Throughout your Illustrator course, you’ll learn about these concepts, including proper color utilization, effective perspective design, and powerful tools for enhancing your designs. This might seem lofty or too abstract for some people: don’t worry too much. You’ll mostly touch on the practical side of these theories and learn how to apply them in the real-world.
Adobe’s many design apps focus heavily on communicating complex ideas through visual mediums. For example, your Illustrator courses might teach you how to use shapes, colors, curved lines, logo placement, and other design concepts to communicate authority, professionalism, and other key touchpoints effectively to your customers. Mastering these skills will make you a better and more efficient Designer, no matter what field you join.
Learning Adobe Illustrator may not be an intuitive process for all Designers. While Adobe focuses heavily on user-friendly UI concepts, the program’s sheer scope gives it a steep learning curve that some might struggle to overcome. Don’t give up if you find Illustrator challenging at first! Like any new skill, it takes time to master the basics and progress to more complex uses. Learning courses focus on emphasizing these foundational skills before progressing to more advanced ones. In this way, you can progressively move up to higher and better levels of software mastery.
Most people understand the basic tools in Illustrator pretty quickly such as drawing, editing, painting, and modifying tools. Some can probably even throw together a few basic shapes to make something with basic visual appeal. However, synthesizing Illustrator’s intensive scope and producing consistently interesting and appealing designs will challenge even the most hardened artist’s mettle. Essentially, you may have a difficult time learning to use Illustrator to produce consistently attractive, professional-grade graphics.
You’ll likely start creating basic designs with Illustrator as soon as your first class. However, it’s a long way from basic understanding to professional-level experience. Simply put, it could take months of practice to produce truly excellent designs. Furthermore, it might take over a year to consistently and competently produce attractive artwork. Don’t let that get you down! You don’t have to take a year-long course: that’s not necessary for most. Instead, you can use the lessons learned in your class to consistently practice and hone your abilities.
Dallas is a massively large city and should provide you with plenty of Illustrator learning opportunities. However, your research might reveal in-person, live virtual, and asynchronous course options. Deciding which to choose will vary depending on your learning style and personality. As a result, it’s important to know the pros and cons of each approach to make a smart decision. Doing so can ensure you get the experience that you want from your Illustrator program.
For most of human history, in-person learning was the only way of mastering new skills. Even now, it provides many advantages over online learning methods—more hands-on training, socialization opportunities, better emotional health, and stronger information retention. Downsides include a more limited class scope (i.e., you can only take what’s available in your town), higher course costs, and a bigger risk of danger (such as fighting through Dallas traffic).
By contrast, live online training—i.e., a real-time class led by a professor over the internet—typically costs less, gives you more training opportunities, and includes supplemental materials such as videos and online reading that can improve your knowledge base. Even asynchronous learning—watching prepared videos at whatever pace you want—provides advantages like self-paced educational opportunities and the lowest class costs available.
That said, online learning does have downsides. Both live and asynchronous courses have limited socialization opportunities and far fewer hands-on time with your professor. They’re often scheduled so tightly that you simply won’t have a lot of time to talk with your teacher (and you can’t just hang out after class to catch them before they go home, either). Asynchronous classes are a particular challenge due to their self-paced nature: you get very limited support.
The appeal of free online learning is obvious. Not having to pay a single dime to master professional-level skills sounds like a dream come true. Video platforms like YouTube provide free learning opportunities from teams like Noble Desktop, including tech-related tips, tricks, and skill-boosting exercises. However, most of these free classes are limited in scope. They often provide a one-shot experience such as learning some basic lessons about Creative Cloud. In other words, these resources, while useful, can’t provide professional-level education.
Adobe’s official site provides multiple Illustrator tutorials that you can use to fine-tune your abilities. You’ll also find a few lessons focused on techniques and methods outside the scope of Illustrator. For example, you can learn how to use Adobe Creative Cloud apps to share your Illustrator designs across the internet to better highlight your abilities. You may also want to master Adobe Photoshop and other similar programs to improve your design skills even further.
Other skills you may want to practice will vary depending on your interests and abilities. For instance, you may want to learn some basic user-interface (UI) and user-experience (UX) concepts—careers in these fields often need someone with high-level Illustrator skills. Interested in motion graphics? Well, practicing with popular animation software can help you transition into that field. The possibilities are endless if you know what you’re doing here.
Dallas has a very diverse market that supports multiple industries. These include financial services, information technology, life sciences, data and software, telecommunications, transportation, processing, semiconductors, and even defense. Within this broad and intensive range, multiple markets and industries co-exist. Thankfully, many will need Adobe Illustrator specialists, particularly those with intensive training and certification.
Dallas is something of a marketing hub for Texas, which isn’t unusual. Larger cities like this often need highly skilled advertising experts to stand out against their competitors. Furthermore, this industry requires professional-level Adobe Illustrator experts, particularly for designing eye-catching advertisements and digital marketing campaigns. Even Web Design firms—which often provide general marketing services—likely need someone who understands Illustrator.
For example, marketing companies need you to design and produce brochures, online (and print) advertisements, attractive and engaging videos, social media posts, infographics, charts highlighting company success, logos, signs, and other branding elements. There’s a good chance that you’ll also use products like InDesign to produce even more attractive materials—InDesign and Illustrator work well together to create gorgeous advertising graphics.
While learning Illustrator doesn’t necessarily mean you’re ready to jump into the architecture industry in Dallas, mastering it could help you prepare for more intensive education. For instance, many Architects use this software to create attractive home designs, and mastering it before taking a bachelor’s degree course could make it easier for you to learn. However, there are also many entry-level professionals within this market that need Illustrator experts.
For example, you might receive on-the-job training as a Drafter if you understand Illustrator and show promise in your skills. As a Drafter, you would create the blueprints designed by the Architect—in other words, they’d come up with the overall concept and you’d craft sections of the blueprints using Illustrator and other tools. This could be a great way to learn more about architecture or support yourself as you work towards a degree in this rewarding field.
Okay, so Dallas isn’t exactly Paris when it comes to the fashion-design market. However, there are multiple designers in this sprawling city that may need Illustrator experts. What exactly would you do in this field as an Illustrator pro? Well, you’d likely sketch out designs, select fabric, and provide instructions on product production. Even if you don’t come up with the design yourself but simply recreate it in Illustrator, fashion provides a unique range of job opportunities.
For example, you might find yourself in roles as a Clothing Designer, Footwear Designer, or even Design Manager. The full scope of available positions will vary depending on which sub-industry you join—i.e., shoe companies may need someone who can not only craft comfortable shoe designs but integrate intricate and appealing shapes, colors, and logos. The possibilities are limitless, especially if you’re someone who lives and breathes fashion week.
The art and design market in Dallas is very broad and includes many unique fields such as video game, animation, theater, film, illustration, and photography companies. Any one of these industries will need someone with intensive Adobe Illustrator experience—particularly in Dallas’ booming film scene. While the filmmakers in this city aren’t among the top producers in the nation, they provide many unique career opportunities for Dallas residents to try out.
As you might expect, your duties and Illustrator use will vary heavily within these industries based on which you join. For example, a video game job might see you producing beautiful graphics or marketing materials for a new gaming series. Likewise, photography could see you using Illustrator and Photoshop to touch up stunning photos and make them even more appealing. Dallas has a huge art scene, so your opportunities here are limitless.
Within the fascinating and rewarding markets mentioned above, you can find multiple Illustrator-related careers that could provide a high-earning and engaging experience. Some of the most popular and highest-earning jobs in Dallas utilize Illustrator skills regularly. In the next section, you’ll get a quick look at some of the most intriguing of these potential opportunities. Note: many of these careers make more than the $66,000 average salary for Dallas residents.
A Video Editor uses Adobe Illustrator and other tools to create streamlined, memorable, and effective videos for many markets. For example, you might work closely with filmmakers to produce fast-moving and entertaining movies using Illustrator’s many design tools. However, you might also focus heavily on creating graphics within the video itself, including cutting out unnecessary elements and balancing the color and composition of the images in the film.
In Dallas, you can make a strong wage of $61,000 on average, depending on your role. The full earning potential of this career ranges from $48,000 to $75,000, though the salaries between the bottom 25% and the top 25% falls within $54,000 to $68,000. What causes such a diverse group of possible wages? Typically, differences like these occur due to varying pay rates within companies in a market, often meaning larger businesses pay bigger wages and vice versa.
Marketing is one of the fastest-growing fields in the world, and as a Digital Marketer you may use Illustrator almost every day. For example, you may utilize it when creating new logos for your customers, producing advertisements that catch the eye, implementing new multi-stream campaigns across multiple channels, and even designing websites. The hands-on work you’ll do with Illustrator makes this a rewarding career for any artistically inclined individual.
Though this career isn’t quite as initially high-earning as others on this list, you can progress to a Senior Digital Marketing role to make even more cash. As a starting Digital Marketer, expect to make at least $66,000 in Dallas (about the city’s average) with an average wage of about $74,000 from most marketing teams. Even better, you could earn up to $83,000 in this field in Dallas, particularly as you gain more experience and progress to more senior-level roles.
Becoming a Motion Graphics Designer is a great idea if you want to use your Illustrator skills to join the entertainment industry. Motion Graphics Designers work in television, film, video production, video games, web applications, and even the tech industry. You’ll focus heavily on using Illustrator and similar design tools to produce visual effects and animations within multiple markets. This role synthesizes your general Illustrator skills to produce a rewarding career.
It’s also a pretty strong career in Dallas, and you’ll end up making well over the average pay for the city. You’ll earn a minimum of $69,000 when joining this market and up to $82,000 at the most. A typical median wage for this job is $77,000, giving you plenty of opportunities to make strong cash. Note that you can also move up the ladder to more management-based fields. Doing so will help you bring home even more cash, potentially up to six figures.
While 3D animation briefly took over the market and remains a heavily popular art style, 2D artwork has made a major comeback in recent years. As a 2D Animator, you’ll use Illustrator and other tools to design two-dimensional characters, backgrounds, and stories that capture an audience’s imagination. You might work directly in the film industry and produce fun cartoons or even produce training videos, which often use animation to keep trainees from getting bored.
Becoming a 2D Animator can provide you with a pretty diverse range of potential salaries. Expect to earn an average wage of $77,000 in Dallas, with full pay possibilities spreading from $70,000 to $87,000. That’s a pretty narrow pay range of $17,000, meaning you’ll likely walk into a job with better-than-average earnings. Note that your average salary in Dallas for this job is a very slight decrease from just over $78,000, meaning it’s not a bad place to start this career.
If you’re not interested in two-dimensional artwork or simply want to join a higher-earning career field, try using Illustrator to become a 3D Animator. In this job, you’ll use Illustrator and other similar tools to produce attractive three-dimensional animations. You’ll create people, animals, unique fantasy creatures, film backgrounds, and much more. Many 3D Animators move into work in the film industry or even for amusement park companies to produce 3D rides.
The jump in salary from a 2D Animator to a 3D Animator is pretty steep, which indicates a higher demand for this position. Dallas 3D Animators make an average of about $92,000 but earn $80,000 at their lowest. Even better, the highest-earning 3D Animators make over $101,000 in Dallas. That’s a pretty big jump from 2D design! That said, the skill sets here aren’t quite the same: you’ll have to master different types of art styles to thrive in each role.
Are you someone who takes a “big picture” approach to visual design? Do you enjoy working on larger products from ideation to completion and even post-production? Try using your Illustrator skills to become a Video Manager. You’ll handle every step of video making, including helping create storyboards, write scripts, plan film blocking, shoot the video, and finalize sound and other elements. This hands-on career is very rewarding in many unique ways.
For example, it’s a six-figure career in Dallas, even at its lowest earning potential. You can make $102,000 minimally in this field in the city, an average of about $123,000, and a high salary of an astonishing $149,000. These higher pay rates are due to the managerial elements of this career—you’ll be handling multiple people and making sure they work together to produce great work. Furthermore, you’ll be something of a Project Manager, which is a high-earning field.
Dallas has a large and extensive educational scene with multiple community colleges, universities, and private training teams. Many of these organizations provide high-quality Illustrator courses that can get your skills to the next level as soon as possible. Read through this section to learn about each school briefly before plowing through an in-depth write-up of their available Illustrator programs. In this way, you can feel comfortable choosing an option.
Digital Training and Designs is a primarily Denver-based educational team that has expanded to Dallas in recent years. Their in-person courses include an instructor who can provide dynamic learning opportunities with extensive post-course follow-ups, as well as project-based learning. Currently, they provide two Illustrator programs that start you at the basic level and work you towards more creative techniques that can expand your portfolio in fascinating ways.
Adobe Illustrator Level 1: Mastering the Essentials is a three-day course that costs just around $1,200 to $1,300 and covers the basic skills you’ll need to become a skilled Illustrator user. You’ll learn how to create logos, flyers, web graphics, flyers, brochures, and various types of print mediums. With hands-on training using a project-based environment, you’ll easily progress through this class and become a better overall Illustrator user in no time at all.
Once you’re done, you can either start practicing Illustrator yourself at home to improve your skills or take Adobe Illustrator Level 2: Creative Techniques. This two-day course moves you beyond the basics of this program to produce complex designs that include specialized effects with unique and fascinating results. With the tips and tricks you learn in this program, you should feel more comfortable transitioning to more creative roles within this market.
Certstaffix Training is a well-known educational team with multiple locations spread across the country. This includes a Dallas location just off of LBJ Freeway. Here, you can learn about things like end-user and desktop design, IT skills, online marketing concepts, programming, Web Development, and important business skills. Its Adobe Illustrator course can provide you with a myriad of benefits and ensure that you’re ready to transition to a new and exciting field.
During this three-day course, you’ll get live instructor teaching from a skilled training professional who understands Illustrator on a deep level. You’ll get printed courseware and a software lab that helps you work in a variety of different fields with relative ease. Certstaffix Training even provides group training options, meaning that you can schedule in-depth corporate education to get your staff ready for the unique demands of Adobe Illustrator on a deep level.
Like many schools, Certstaffix Training provides a digital badge of completion that you can share on your virtual profiles to highlight your abilities as much as possible. Furthermore, you get a six-month online retake if you fail the course or simply want to touch-up your skills a little more. Subjects you’ll learn about creating unique graphics, transforming them in various ways, rotating and adjusting each subject, and even coloring them in fun and unique ways for your needs.
Lumenbrite is a Dallas-based educational crew that can provide a multitude of training opportunities in various tech skills. For example, they teach subjects like Illustrator, InDesign, Photoshop, Premiere Pro, After Effects, Dreamweaver, Animate, and Creative Cloud. With adaptable, fast-paced, and entertaining classes led by skilled professors who deeply understand each subject, its Illustrator bootcamp can get you ready to use this software quickly.
Illustrator Training: Bootcamp is a four-day course that takes place over seven hours on each day to immerse you in a unique and powerful training environment. In this class, you’ll learn about Illustrator’s interface and workspaces. Basic skills you’ll master include shape tools, Shape Builder usage, customized colors and gradients, the Appearance Panel, specialized effects, 3D and 2D artwork, and other types of important Illustrator-based capabilities.
As you work through this course, you’ll slowly expand your knowledge and become a more skilled and hands-on Illustrator user. Just as importantly, you’ll master important techniques that can improve your abilities such as tips and tricks that make Illustrator easier to use. For instance, you’ll get student courseware and class projects, a completion certification, and conversion tools bookmarks that help you transition to a potential job more quickly.
Ledet Training is a multi-city educational organization that provides learning options in many parts of the country. Their closest location to Dallas is Houston, so if you have some time off or don’t mind traveling, you could attend their in-person Illustrator course. However, you could also take it online if you rather do it that way. You’ll learn the same amount of information and can cut your travel time down significantly to ensure you get the support you need for your education.
In Adobe Illustrator 101, you’ll take two days to master the most basic functions of this program. Consider this a beginner-friendly course: if you’ve never worked with Adobe products before, it’s designed to slowly get you acquainted with how they work. For example, you’ll learn about artboards, workspaces, tool palette, live paint, the pen tool, color options, and various patterns. As you master each new skill, you’ll get some real-world experience utilizing them in class.
That said, you’ll also learn about other types of fascinating and slightly more advanced subjects. These include mapping symbols to 3D artwork, graphic styles, CSS code (useful for web design), calligraphic brushes, editing shapes, the Pathfinder effects, symbol usage, and Flash integration. When you’re done, you should feel pretty confident working with most of Illustrator’s tools and can start looking either for entry-level jobs or work on polishing up your skills.
Adobe Illustrator Bootcamp provides a comprehensive learning environment over 18 extensive hours. During this expert-led course, you’ll get one-on-one bonus training, setup assistance, and a free retake that makes this program even more effective. As you progress through this program, you’ll learn about various drawing tools, compound paths, various effects, layers, masks, patterns, colors, blends, and other critical Illustrator subjects.
It’s particularly focused on the vector pen because this tool is often one of the most difficult to master in Illustrator. You can then learn all about creating complex shapes out of more basic designs to create fascinating and appealing styles. As one of the most highly rated courses in Noble Desktop’s lineup, Adobe Illustrator Bootcamp can provide you with the hands-on support that you need to take your abilities to the next level and become a better Graphic Designer.
Are you looking for an inexpensive course that will quickly immerse you in Illustrator and get you ready in just a day? Illustrator in a Day purports to do just that—and in only six hours to boot! Though you can take this class as part of the Adobe Illustrator Bootcamp and Graphic Design Certificate courses from Noble Desktop, you can also take it separately if you want to save money, just want a basic introduction to Illustrator, or need a little touchup on your skills.
Note that this isn’t a portfolio-based class, which means you won’t have a set of projects to highlight after you’re done. That’s understandable because you simply don’t have time to create multiple unique illustrations using this program. However, it’s still a strong course if you want to polish up your skills in Illustrator a little. If you’re someone who learns best by experimenting with a program and would love to learn in this way, sign up for Illustrator in a Day.
If you’re interested in teaching your whole team about Illustrator or simply want to touch up their already strong skills, it’s a smart idea to book a corporate training experience from Noble Desktop. This learning team provides a large-scale online educational experience suited specifically to business needs. You’ll get the same attention to detail Noble Desktop always provides, as well as in-depth one-on-one training with professors, whenever possible.
Just as importantly, Noble provides discounted bulk vouchers that help reduce your expenses and make this kind of training experience more affordable and effective. Any company that regularly uses Illustrator will likely receive huge benefits from this course, including better program comprehension, more attractive designs, and much more. Please don’t hesitate to contact them at corporate@nobledesktop.com to set up your corporate training course.